Modern Pm 
jRurns. 



w 

J.n.GARRlSON. 




Class Ml. J_iid_ 

Book.__ Sx/^ 

Copyright]^": 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



A MODERN PLEA FOR ANCIENT 
TRUTHS. 



BY J. H. GARRISON 



Alone With God. Cloth . . . $ .75 
Heavenward Way. Cloth ... .75 

Half-Hour Studies at the Cross. Cloth .75 
A Modern Plea for Ancient Ttuths. 

Boards 35 

The Old Faith Restated. (Edited). 

Cloth 2.00 

Reformation of the Nineteenth 

Century. (Edited.) Cloth . . 2.00 
Rightly Dividing the Word. Paper .05 

CONGREGATIONALISTS AND DiSCIPLES. 

Paper .15 

Union and Victory. Paper ... .05 

Higher Criticism. Paper ... .05 

The Disciples of Christ. Paper (doz.) .10 
Our Movement; Its Origin and Aim. 

Paper .10 



A MODERN PLEA FOR 
ANCIENT TRUTHS 



J. H. GARRISON, A. M., LL. D. 

J^DiTOR The Christian-Kvangelist 



■'Being ready always to give answer to every man that 

asketh you a reason concerning the hope 

that is in you." — / Peter j: i^. 



CHRISTIAN PUBLISHING COMPANY 

SX. lyOUIS 

1902 



^P\i> 



THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

Two Copies Received 

JAN 28 1903 

0\ Copyright Entry 
CLASS CC^ XXc. No, 

•3^/ S « 

COPY S. 



Copyright, 1902, 
By Christian Publishing Company 



PREFACE 



ThK position occupied by the Disci- 
ples of Christ is by no means universally 
understood, even among intelligent peo- 
ple. The rapm growtif which this re- 
ligious movement has made, has given 
rise of late to wide questioning as to the 
reasons for such growth, and the aim 
and principles of the movement. This 
little booklet is designed to present, in 
^convenient form, the answer to these 
questions. It has been our aim to make 
it sufficiently brief so that the busy man 
might read it, and yet sufficiently full to 
give a somewhat complete outline of the 
chief things believed and taught among 
us. The author has had in mind, too, 
the needs of our younger membership, 



PRBFACK 

and especially of our young ministers, and 
lie would fain hope that what is herein 
presented may serve to deepen their 
conviction of the value of the truths 
herein stated, and assist them in giving 
a wise emphasis to the various parts of 
this plea for a return to the Christianity 
of Jesus, May His favor, in whose 
name it is written and sent forth, rest 
richly upon it and upon the cause which 
it pleads! Th^ Author. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGB 

I. A Summary 9 

II. A Plea for Unity . . . 21 
III. A Plea for Liberty . . 31 
IV A Plea for Loyalty . . 41 
V. A Plea for New Testa- 
ment Evangelism . . 51 
VI. A Plea for Progress . . 71 
VII. A Plea for Love ... 83 



I 

A SUMMARY 



A MODKRN PIvKA FOR ANCIENT TRUTHS 



I 

A SUMMARY 

This modern plea emphasizes several 
fundamental truths: 

I. It is a plea for unity. Not a consolida- 
tion of sects into one huge ecclesiasticism, 
but such union with Christ, and such con- 
formity to his teaching, as will bring all his 
followers into fellowship and co-operation 
with each other in the great work of con- 
verting the world. It is not uniformity of 
thought, or of opinion, or of modes of wor- 
ship, or of organization, that is insisted on 
as essential to the fulfillment of Christ's 
prayer for the oneness of his fojlowers, but 
oneness in faith, in submission to the sole 
authority and leadership of Christ, and in 
the spirit and aim of Christian service. Or, 



A MODERN PLEA FOR ANCIENT TRUTHS 

as Paul puts it, it is one body, one spirit, 
one hope, one Lord, qne faith, one baptism, 
one God and Father of all. We plead for a 
union that would heal our divisions; hush 
the clamor of ecclesiastical jealousies and 
strifes, and bring into fraternal co-Qperation 
all who love Christ and desire to advance 
his kingdom. It is a union in Christ, with 
Christ, under Christ, and for Christ. This 
alone is Christian union. 

2. It is a plea for liberty. No sooner had 
our fathers lifted their voices for unity 
amo,ng believers than they found the chief 
obstacle in the way of realizing it to be ec- 
clesiastical authority, as that authority had 
embodied itself in the conflicting creeds of 
Christendom, and in competing organiza- 
tions resting on these several creeds. Hence 
there was instant and imperative need of 
emphasizing the principle of Christian lib- 
erty. If these creeds were really binding on 

ID 



A SUMMARY 



the consciences of men for all time because 
they were formulated by the wisest men of 
their times, then, of course, that was an end 
of religious reformation. But every reform- 
er from Luther to Campbell has recognized 
the voice of God, speaking in his inmost 
soul and through the holy scriptures, as 
freeing him from the bondage to human 
authority in religion. So did our fathers. 
They dared to exercise the liberty where- 
with Christ had made them free, by reject- 
ing all human creeds as bases of union or 
communion, and to make their appeal di- 
rectly to the authority of the scriptures. The 
liberty to think for themselves, in matters 
religious, and to act in harmony with their 
convictions, they felt to be an inalienable 
right, to surrender which means religious 
servitude, stagnation and death. It was not 
the liberty of rejecting divine authority 
which they demanded, but the liberty of 

II 



A MODKRN PIvKA FOR ANCIE^NT TRUTHS 

rejecting human authority whenever and 
wherever it came in conflict with the au- 
thority of God in Christ. In other words, 
it was Christian liberty for which they pled 
— the liberty not only to reject whatever 
error human authority had imposed, but 
the liberty to receive all truth, as God en- 
ables us to see it. 

3. It is a plea for loyalty. The holy 
scriptures to which they made their appeal 
point unmistakably to Christ as the One 
possessing "all authority, both in heaven 
and on earth.^' They show, also, that the 
confession of Him as Lord and Christ Is 
the true and divinely-given confession of 
faith on which the Church was to be built. 
Loyalty to Him, then, became the true test 
of fellowship. In rejecting the clashing 
creeds which men had made, and accepting 
that which flesh and blood had not revealed, 
but which had been revealed by the heav- 

12 



A SUMMARY 



enly Father, as the true basis of fellowship, 
Christian union seemed to be not only de- 
sirable but practicable. As no one can be a 
Christian without accepting Christ, here, it 
seemed, was a universal bond of fellowship 
among his followers — faith in and loyalty 
to the personal Christ. And so our plea 
exalts Christ above all doctrinal standards, 
and urges loyalty to Him as the supreme 
condition of union and of the triumph of 
His kingdom in the world. Any idea of 
liberty or of liberalism which involves dis- 
loyalty to Christ, is at v/ar with one of the 
fundamental principles of our plea, and is 
based on a false conception of what consti- 
tutes true liberty. Any theory of Chris- 
tianity which limits the application of its 
principles to any section of human interests, 
and denies its complete regnancy in every 
department of life, is disloyalty to Him who 
claims universal dominion. 



13 



A MODERN PLEA FOR ANCIENT TRUTHS 

4. It is a plea for a return to New Testa- 
ment evangelism. The plain, simple method 
0)f the apostles in preaching Christ to the 
people until they were convinced of sin, and 
then pointing out the way of salvation from 
sin, through faith in, confession of, and 
obedience to, Christ, had become obscured 
by human traditions. Our plea includes the 
restoration of the simplicity of the gospel, 
in its facts, commands and ordinances. 
There is in these sublime facts and mean- 
ingful ordinances, a wise adaptation to the 
needs of men, and to the laws of man's men- 
tal and moral nature. This is shown by the 
success which has always attended the faith- 
ful presentation of the simple gospel, 
whether in the first or twentieth century. To 
know the gospel, and to believe in it as the 
powxr of God, and to know human nature, 
and to believe in its capacity to receive truth 
and respond to the gospel's appeal — these 

14 



A SUMMARY 



are the essential conditions of successful 
evangelism. 

5. It is a plea for progress. The union 
of believers which should be is not yet. 
Knowledge of God and of His word and will 
is imperfect. Vast fields of truth yet re- 
main to be explored. The world is not yet 
converted. We have only touched the out- 
skirts of the pagan world. Wiser methods 
and deeper consecration are required. We 
have the Christian graces only in rudimen- 
tary form. How much remains to be done 
in us befcLTe we are even worthy to be used 
of God in carrying qut His great purposes 
in the world ! What abuses in Church and 
state remain to be corrected! What re- 
forms await their consummation! In what 
an unfinished condition is God^s work on 
this planet! We must go forward. We 
have not yet apprehended that for which 
we were apprehended by Christ Jesus. Our 



15 



A MODERN PIvBA FOR ANCIKNT TRUTHS 

religio.us movement has not attained its 
ideal — much less God's ideal. He has 
greater works for us to do than we have 
ever dreamed of, if we will only follow 
where Christ would lead us. He wants a 
continuous and progressive reformation 
that shall address itself to the condition 
and needs of each passing age. He wants 
no crystallization, but perpetual growth. 
All previous reformations have crystallized. 
Shall ours ? Not if we are willing to be led 
of Christ. 

4. Finally, it is a plea for love. No union 
is possible until love becomes the tri- 
umphant force. Look at the early Church, 
made up of Jews and Gentiles, bond and 
free, differing in toto in a hundred things, 
but one in their passionate love for Jesus. 
Before that omnipotent love partition walls 
went down with a crash, and hearts long 

estranged by national and religious preju- 
_ _ 



A SUMMARY 



dices flowed together at its magic touch. 
Jesus, the crucified and risen Savior, was 
the bond of union. Loving Him they loved 
one another, and love spread its beautiful 
mantle over many faults and many differ- 
ences. Our plea for union will never tri- 
umph until religious people of differing 
creeds shall learn to love each other more. 
''Beloved, if Christ so loved us, we ought 
also to love one another." So shall Christ's 
followers become one and the world be con- 
verted. 



i7_ 

(2) 



II 

A PLEA FOR UNITY 



Neither for these only do I pray, but for them also that 
believe on me through their word, that they may all be one; 
even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that the}?- also 
may be in us; that the world may believe that thou didst 
send m.^.— Jesus. 

There is one body and one Spirit, even as ye were called in 
one hope of j'^our calling; one I,ord, one faith, one baptism, 
one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, 
and in all. — Paul. 



Now I beseech you, brethren, through the name of our 
I^ord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and 
that there be no divisions among you ; but that ye be per- 
fected together in the same mind and in the same judgment. 
. . . Now this I mean, that each one of you saith, I am of 
Paul; and I of ApoUos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. Is 
Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were ye 
baptized in the name of Paul?— Paw/. 



20 



A PIvKA FOR UNITY 



II 

A PLEA FOR UNITY 

The impelling motive that prompted the 
leaders in this movement was, no doubt, 
the desire for Christian union growing out 
of the divided and distracted condition of 
the religious world at the beginning of the 
last century. The evils of division among 
Christians were so apparent, and their ex- 
istence was so contrary to the spirit and 
teaching of the New Testament, that it is 
not surprising that men of large vision, and 
animated by a supreme desire to advance 
the kingdom of God, should have called the 
attention o,f their brethren to the appalling 
evils of sectarian divisions and suggested 
some remedy for the same. Looking back, 
now, at the condition and needs of the 

21 



A MODERN PLEA FOR ANCIENT TRUTHS 

religious world at that time, in the light 
of the century that has passed, it is clear 
that no other reform in the religious world 
was so imperatively demanded as the union 
of the divided forces of Christendom upon 
a scriptural basis of fellowship and co-op- 
eration. Such would be the verdict to-day 
of the most enlightened minds of all re- 
ligious bodies. 

It is not to be supposed, for a moment, 
that the great and good men who first 
voiced this plea for unity understood what 
would be the outcome of it, or in what way 
Christian union would be brought about. 
They simply saw the need for unity, and 
recognized their duty to make an efifort to 
bring it about. They were co/Utent to leave 
the rest with God. Their first thought 
stems to have been that their plea for 
union, on the simple New Testament basis, 
would work as a leavening influence within 

22 



A PLKA FOR UNITY 



the various religious bodies, and would 
gradually bring about the unification which 
they desired. It did not take long, how- 
ever, for this illusion to be dispelled. When 
a separate and independent movement be- 
came necessary and men were flocking out 
of various religious bodies, yielding up their 
party names and party creeds that they 
might have fellowship with one another and 
with Christ on a broader and more scrip- 
tural basis, many no doubt dreamed of the 
time when, by the process of absorption, the 
unity for which Christ prayed might be 
realized. It is possible that some even yet 
cherish the belief that Christian union must 
come in this and no other way. 

Far be it from us to discourage anyone, 
weary with the jargon of denominational 
strife, from seeking among Us a basis of 
union broad enough for all the followers of 
Christ. While we think that the time has 



23 



A MODERN PIvKA FOR ANCIENT TRUTHS 

come when supreme emphasis should be 
laid upon the conversion of sinners, we 
trust the time will never come on this side 
of a united Church when we will not wel- 
come into our fellowship all who love Christ 
and are willing to obey him, but who are 
unwilling longer to wear party names or 
have their consciences bound by party 
creeds. But while saying this, it is only 
true to say, further, that very few if any of 
the intelligent advocates of our plea for 
unity, now, ever expect to see Christ's 
prayer for the oneness of his followers 
brought about by the method of absorption. 
It is not our privilege, any more than it 
was the privilege of our fathers, to know 
how Christ's prayer for unity is to be ful- 
filled, except as we may be l)etter able to 
judge of the future in the light of nearly 
a century's history of our movement. This 
history does not lead us to believe that God 

24 



A PI/KA FOR UNITY 



is going to bring about the unity of his 
children by one religious body's absorbing, 
by individual accretions, all the others. 
What we do see in this century of history 
is a gradual and steady modification of 
those religious tenets and practices which 
have been the chief sQurces of division in 
the past. It is more logical to conclude that 
this process of a growing conformity to 
New Testament conditions of fellowship 
will continue, under the leadings of the di- 
vine Spirit, until all insuperable barriers 
to Christian fellowship will have been re- 
moved, and our plea for unity realized. 

But whatever may be the method which 
God shall choose for securing fraternity and 
co-operation among his children, it is clear- 
ly our duty to continue, even with more 
fidelity than in the past, to point out the 
evils of division and to emphasize those 
essential principles upon which Christians 



^5 



A MODERN PIvBA FOR ANCIENT TRUTHS 

may be one. Above all, there is need that 
we manifest the spirit of unity to a much 
greater degree than we have done in the 
past. We must, in the first place, recog- 
nize and rejoice in the unity which already 
exists, and seek to utilize that unity in all 
possible ways. It has been a fault with 
many of us, in the past, to refuse to recog- 
nize any sort of unity that does not come 
up to our highest ideal. This is neither wise 
nor scriptural. In Christian union, as in 
all the processes of divine gro.wth, we must 
expect ''first the blade, then the ear, then 
the full corn in the ear/' It is only by mak- 
ing use of the union which already exists 
that we can hope to attain to a fuller and 
completer unity. 

Moreover, we must be careful to distin- 
guish between unity and uniformity. Our 
plea for the former has often been under- 
stood as a plea for the latter. Uniformity 
— 



A PlyKA FOR UNITY 



in modes of thinking and working and 
worshiping, we shall never see. We do not 
see it in nature, where God has his way, 
and we shall never see it in the kingdom 
of grace where the freedom of the Spirit 
exists. God's kingdom is advanced more 
rapidly by variety than by uniformity. But 
this is no apology for sectarianism, for there 
is room for ample variety within the limits 
of that unity which the New Testament 
teaches. 

Finally, and most important of all, per- 
haps, we must not forget that, primarily, 
our union is with Christ. Not until we be- 
come sharers of the life of Christ, partakers 
of his nature, guided by his spirit, are we 
prepared for Christian union. A thousand 
obstacles will be removed out of the way 
of our fellowship with each other, when we 
have once come into close and vital fellow- 
ship with Jesus Christ. Our divisions have 



27 



A MODERN PIvKA FOR ANCIE)NT TRUTHS 

come because we are "carnal/' and union 
will come only as we become spiritual. In 
all our thought and planning for Christian 
unity, therefore, let us not fail to seek the 
guidance of him in whom and through 
whom and under whom alone this union is 
to be consummated. 



28 



Ill 

A PLEA FOR LIBERTY 



If ye abide in my word, then are ye truly my disciples; 
and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make 5^ou 
free. . . If therefore the Son shall make you free, ye 
shall be free indeQd.—Jesus. 

With freedom did Christ set us free. Stand fast, therefore, 
and be not entangled again in a j'-oke of bondage. — Paul. 

Now, therefore, why make ye trial of God, that ye should 
put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples which neither our 
fathers nor we were able to bear? — Peter. 

One is your Master, and all ye are hx^VoiX^Vi.— Jesus. 



30 



A PIvBA FOR LIBERTY 



III 

A PLEA FOR LIBERTY 

Nothing was more characteristic of our 
movement in its earlier days than the em- 
phasis it laid upon Christian liberty. At 
every step almost these bold reformers were 
confronted with some objection based upon 
human authority. Their reply was virtually 
that of Peter and John to the Jewish San- 
hedrim, ''Whether it be right in the sight of 
God to hearken unto you rather than unto 
God, judge ye/' The much quoted and 
much abused aphorism of Thomas Camp- 
bell — ''Where the scriptures speak Vv^e 
speak, and where the scriptures are silent 
we are silent" — was a declaration of inde- 
pendence from human authority. It has 
been perverted by legalists who would make 

31 



A mod:^rn pIvKa for ancient truths 

a chain out of it wherewith to bind the con- 
sciences of Christian freemen. What the 
fathers meant by it was that what God has 
made binding upon us, by his word, we 
recognize as binding ; but where he has left 
us free to follow enlightened judgment, we 
refuse to be bound by human authority, and 
we refuse to bind others. On the one hand 
there was loyalty to all that the scriptures 
required ; on the other hand there was free- 
dom from all that human authority had im- 
posed in the way of belief and practice which 
the scriptures do not require. 

We have learned in our religious history 
as well as in our political that ''eternal vigi- 
lance is the price of liberty." Time and 
again, by the most specious pleas and by the 
most insidious reasoning, men have sought 
to rivet upon us chains which were severed 
by our fathers. We have recently had an 
object lesson among us, the meaning of 

32 



A PIvBA FOR LIBERTY 



which should be recognized and remem- 
bered. The principle of Christian Hberty 
has been lost sight of and trampled beneath 
the feet of some in their zeal to exterminate 
or render unpopular certain men and cer- 
tain views which they believe to be injur- 
ious. We call no one's motives in ques- 
tion, but we are bound to say that if the 
spirit manifested in this crusade should be- 
come the prevailing and permanent charac- 
teristic of our brotherhood, then our mis- 
sion as a religious body would end in a dis- 
mal failure. Champions of religious liberty 
in the beginning, we would in that event be- 
come the promoters and upbuilders of the 
very kind of ecclesiasticism against which 
our fathers rebelled. This would not be an 
unprecedented thing in history, but it is to 
be hoped that histOiry will not repeat itself 
in the case of this great movement in be- 
half of union and liberty. 

33 

(3) --,_-__ 



A MODERN PIvKA I^OR ANCIENT TRUTHS 

The question naturally arises here, 
"What are the limits of Christian liberty?" 
The answer is, Christ. At least this is the 
answer which our religious position logical- 
ly implies. We have said that belief in 
Christ is our creed, and obedience to him 
is our test of fellowship. This defines with 
sufficient clearness the extent and limita- 
tions of that liberty for which we contend. 
Outside the limits of this simple and yet 
profound creed there is a wide field where 
the mind should be perfectly free to think, 
to investigate and to announce its conclu- 
sions without the fear of human authority 
or of the odium theologicum. This wide 
range includes theology, ecclesiology, so- 
ciology, anthropology and eschatology, and 
whatever other ology there may be. What- 
ever advancement has been made in these 
departments of thought, and it has been 
very great, has been the result of freedom 

34 



A PLBA FOR LIBERTY 



of investigation. The moment the freedom 
to think and, to reach conclusions different 
from those which have hitherto prevailed 
within these realms^of thought, shall cease, 
that moment will progress cease. 

It is clear, then, that if the Disciples of 
Christ are to make any progress in theologi- 
cal thought, in biblical criticism, and in the 
application of Christian principles to exist- 
ing conditions; if, in a word, we are to be 
a progressive reformation, keeping in touch 
with the times in which we live and carry- 
ing forward to ultimate success the great 
principles for which we plead, we must 
recognize and preserve unsullied the glo- 
rious heritage of Christian liberty. Let in- 
vestigators among us reach their conclu- 
sions and announce them. They will not 
always agree, but good rather than harm 
will result from this divergence of conclu- 
sions, because it will stimulate further 



35 



A MODERN PLEA FOR ANCIENT TRUTHS 

thought, and each side will be profited by 
the contribution of the other. But all this 
must be done within the limits of Christian 
fellowship and Christian fraternity, if we 
are not to become a narrow sect, seeking to 
bind men where God has left them free. 

Of course, when one reaches the point 
where he can no longer follow Christ as the 
divine Leader, and does not recognize His 
authority as final and His salvation as ample 
for all men's needs, then he ceases to be of 
us and will naturally drift to his own place. 
He need not be persecuted or misrepre- 
sented even then. He should be permitted 
to depart in peace. He may be an honest 
and misguided soul, who will some day find 
out that only the Christ of the New Testa- 
ment can meet the demands of the human 
soul, and turn to him again, and he is all 
the more likely to do so if those with whom 
he formerly stood in fellowship have treated 

_ 



A PIvKA FOR IvIBKRTY 



him with kindness and consideration. It 
should be clearly understood that any man 
who does not fully accept the leadership 
of Christ, and is not willing to follow him 
withersoever he leads, has so far surrend- 
ered the truth for which we are contend- 
ing that he has no legitimate place in the 
ranks of those seeking to return to Christ. 
But kindness and forbearance will often win 
when arrogance and bigotry will drive men 
further away from Christ and from his 
truth. 

That was a great utterance of Paul, the 
apostle and champion of Christian liberty in 
his day: '^Stand fast, therefore, in the 
liberty wherewith Christ hath made you 
free, and be not entangled again with the 
yoke of bondage/' And this word of ex- 
hortation to the Galatian brethren who were 
wavering between the liberty of the gospel 
and the enslaving yoke of Judaism, is as 



37 



A MODERN PLKA FOR ANCIKNT TRUTHS 

timely to us, the Disciples of Christ, to- 
day, as it ever was in Paul's day. Out of 
the very womb of liberty we have been born 
as a brotherhood of reformers. Let us see 
to it that we maintain that same liberty with 
reference to all the truths of our time, if we 
are to fulfill our mission in the world and 
apprehend that for which we have been 
apprehended by Christ Jesus. 



38 



IV 
A PLEA FOR LOYALTY 



Not every one that saith unto me, lyord, I^ord, shall enter 
into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of 
my Father who is in heaven.— Jestis. 

Why call ye me I^ord, and do not the things I command 
yo\x}—/es2is. 

Kvery one therefore that heareth these words of mine, and 
doeth thera, shall be likened unto a wise man, who built his 
house upon the rock: and the rain descended, and the 
floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, 
and it fell not : for it was founded upon the rock. And every 
one that heareth these words of mine and doeth them not, 
shall be likened unto a foolish man, who built his house 
upon the sand; and the rain descended, and the floods 
came, and the winds blew and smote upon that house; and 
it fell : and great was the fall thereof .-V'^jw^. 



40 



A PLKA FOR IvOYAIvTY 



IV 
A PLEA FOR LOYALTY 

There are those who seem to think that 
loyalty and liberty are mutually exclusive 
terms; some holding that loyalty is an im- 
pingement upon liberty, and others that 
liberty undermines the idea of loyalty. Both 
these extremes are wrong. Loyalty is an 
essential condition of liberty, and liberty 
is the necessary fruit of loyalty. In rebell- 
ing against the idea of human authority in 
religion, many have gone to the extreme 
of discarding all authority, and have become 
religious anarchists. This is even a more 
fatal mistake than the acceptance of human 
creeds as binding authority. Both errors 
are to be avoided. 

Submission to authority is essential to the 

41 



A MODERN PLEA FOR ANCIENT TRUTHS 

idea of a kingdom. Jesus came into the 
woirld to establish a kingdom not of the 
world. It was not to rest on force, and 
hence Chrisf s subjects were not permitted 
to fight for Him with material weapons. 
The authority by which His kingdom was 
to be carried forward was that of truth— 
the truth of which He was the embodiment 
and the exponent. In answer to Pilate's 
question, "Art thou a king, then?'' Jesus 
answered, 'To this end have I been born, 
and to this end am I come into the world, 
that I should bear witness unto the truth. 
Every one that is of the truth, heareth my 
voice. ^' Jesus, then, was the king of truth 
and his kingdom was to rest on truth. It 
was because He not only spoke the truth, 
but was the truth, that He could say, ''All 
authority in heaven and on earth is given 
unto me." He is the revelation of God to 
men, because in Him truth shines through 

42 



A PIvKA FOR IvOYAIvTY 



a perfect personality, manifesting the true 
character of God and His will concerning 
man. It is this unique relationship which 
Jesus sustains to God, on the one hand, and 
to man, on the other, which makes the truth 
concerning Him — His Messiahship and di- 
vine Sonship — the supreme truth of revela- 
tion and the rock foundation of his Church. 
The early church, therefore, was empha- 
tically Christocentric. It was made up of 
those who gathered about Christ, and ac- 
cepted him as their divine Leader. Christ 
said to men, "Follow me.'' That includes 
all the demands which he makes of men. 
To follow Christ is to be a Christian. At 
the beginning of this reformation a man's 
Christian standing in the various denomina- 
tions depended far more on his acceptance 
of the creed of that denomination than upon 
his loyalty to Christ. The seat of author- 
ity had been transferred from the personal 



43 



A MODERN PIvBA FOR ANCIKNT TRUTHS 

Christ to a human creed. Instead of being 
Christocentric, the Church had become 
centered about various doctrines, ordi- 
nances or theories of Church organi- 
zation, which had been made the 
basis of denominational fellowship. What 
we mean, therefore, by saying that 
ours is a plea for loyalty, is, that it is a 
plea for a return to Christ and unques- 
tioning obedience to His commands, His 
example. His spirit. As divisions have re- 
sulted from the change of center from 
Christ to doctrinal or ecclesiastical theories, 
so it is believed that these divisions can only 
be healed by restoring the Christocentric 
character of the early church. Whatever 
the phrase, '*Back to Christ,'^ may mean to 
others, with us it means a return to the 
simple Christianity of Christ, and to the 
original center and foundation of the 
Church which He is building. 

44 



A PLEA FOR LOYALTY 



It cannot be denied that this plea for loy- 
alty to the personal Christ regardless of all 
human formulas of doctrine or confessions 
of faith, involves revolutionary changes. 
The change may be sudden, as in the case 
ot individuals who may instantly transfer 
their allegiance from a human creed to the 
personal Christ, or it may be very gradual, 
as in the case of aggregations of Christians, 
Vv^ho gradually change the emphasis from 
theories of church organization and doc- 
trinal speculations to the lordship and su- 
preme authority of Jesus Christ. In such 
cases the change takes on the character of 
an evolution, rather than a revolution. This 
is the process we beHeve to be going un 
now in the religious world. Human creeds 
are waning in authority, and Christ is rising 
to his rightful zenith. When this process 
is completed we shall be in a condition to 
realize more fully the fulfillment of our 



45 



A MODKRN PLEA FOR ANCIENT TRUTHS 

Lord's prayer for the oneness of His disci- 
ples. No little responsibility rests upon us 
who have championed this Christocentric 
view of the Church and of Christianity in 
keeping this distinction clear before the 
people. If in the past, by reasoon of the 
seeming necessity of giving emphasis to 
some neglected ordinance or doctrine, we 
have failed to make the world understand 
the real nature of our plea, the time has 
certainly, arrived when by a wise distribu- 
tion of emphasis and by the proper "pro- 
portion of faith,^' we may exalt Christ to 
his true place, far above all dogmas, eccle- 
siasticisms and traditions of men, and the 
center about whom Christians may be gath- 
ered. 

Loyalty in the kingdom of God means 
the union of fidelity and love. This ele- 
ment of love has an essential place in the 
very idea of loyalty That is the reason 



A PLEA FOR LOYALTY 



why the personal Christ, and not a set of 
doctrines or theories, has been made the 
object of faith and the basis of our com- 
mon fellowship. We cannot have a per- 
sonal affection for abstract doctrines and 
theories of church government, or forms 
of ordinances. We can, however, love 
Christ, and loving Him be loyal to all that 
He has taught and required of us. But 
this loyalty goes deeper and extends wider 
than many of us have thought. It does not 
cease with conformity to the initiatory re- 
quirements of the gospel, or the formal 
acknowledgment of Christ as Lord. It in- 
cludes the bringing of the whole life into 
harmony with the spirit, temper and teach- 
ing of Jesus Christ. It means that what- 
ever we do — whether we pray or whether 
we vote, whether we trade or whether we 
till the soil, whether we are engaged in our 
dojmestic duties or meeting the obligations 



47 



A MODERN PLEA FOR ANCIENT TRUTHS 

of citizenship or social life— we should do all 
in the name of the Lord. Loyalty to 
Christ, in its truest and deepest significance, 
brings not only the whole man, but every 
department of human activity, in subjection 
to Him and under the control of principles 
of life and conduct which He inculcates. 
When we have turned away from subordi- 
nate matters as centers of interest and bases 
of fellowship, and have come back to sit at 
the feet of the Master and learn of Him and 
to follow Him, we may expect higher ethi- 
cal standards in all departments of life, a 
deeper personal consecration, nobler types 
of Christian character, and a more aggres- 
sive movement on the part of the whole 
Church for the accompHshment of its sub- 
lime mission in the world. 



48 



A PLEA FOR NEW TESTAMENT 
EVANGELISM 



(4) 



Go ye, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations 
baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Sotk 
and of the Holy Spirit; teaching them to observe all things 
whatsoever I commanded you; and lo, I am with 3''OU 
always, even unto the end of the woT\d..-^Jesus. 

Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and rise 
again from the dead the third day; and that repentance and 
remission of sins should be preached in his name unto all 
the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. . . But tarry ye 
in the city until ye be clothed with power from on high. — 
Jesus, 

Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name 
of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins : and ye shall 
receive the gift of the Holy S^pirit.— Peter. 

And in none other is there salvation : for neither is there 
any other name under heaven, that is given among men, 
wherein we must be saved.— /V/^r. 



50 



PIvBA FOR NEW TESTAMENT EVANGELISM 



V 

A PLEA FOR NEW TESTAMENT 
EVANGELISM 

The preaching which prevailed in this 
country a century ago was highly "doctrin- 
aV as it was called ; that is, it abounded in 
the statement and defense of the doctrinal 
peculiarities of the several systems of the- 
ology which were then in fashion, among 
which Calvinism and its rival, Arminianism, 
were dominant. The differences between 
these two great systems related to the na- 
ture of the human will — whether it acted 
with freedom or from necessity; whether 
man was a free moral agent with power to 
apprehend and accept the truth of the gos- 
pel or whether he must wait until God ir- 

51 



A MODKRN PLEA FOR ANCIKNT TRUTHS 

resistibly regenerated him and enabled him 
to repent and beHeve the gospel. These 
differences also related to the divine will— 
whether it included pro-vision for the salva- 
tion of all men, or of only a limited num- 
ber chosen without reference to their moral 
condition or their own choice in the matter, 
the remainder being passed by and left to 
eternal damnatiqn for the glory of God. 
The arguments on each side were drawn 
out at great length and buttressed about 
w^ith those passages of scripture which 
seemed to favor the particular view advo- 
cated. The expHcation and defense of these 
systems of theology constituted the staple 
of preaching in the early part of the last 
century. 

Differing in many points of doctrine, the 
two prevailing systems mentioned above 
agreed in this, that man was so depraved 
in nature that he v/as utterly incapable of 

5^ 



PIvBA FOR NEW TESTAMENT EVANGELISM 

thinking a good thought or of performing 
a good deed, much less co,uId he beHeve 
and obey the gospel without a direct mi- 
raculous operation of the Holy Spirit im- 
parting life and vision. This false view of 
human nature and consequently of man's 
responsibility, and an equally false concep- 
tion of the divine method of teaching the 
human soul, were serious obstacles in the 
way of evangelization. Men burdened with 
the sense of guilt and anxious for pardon 
and peace were told that there was noth- 
ing they could do to secure the assurance 
of salvation; that they must wait until 
"God's good time^' when, in the exercise of 
his own sovereign power, he would regen- 
erate and save them, provided, according 
to Calvinism, they belonged to the elect, 
and provided, according to Arminianism, 
they had not already sinned away their day 
of grace. But much doubt prevailed on 

53 



A MODERN PIvKA FOR ANCIENT TRUTHS 

both these paints and many were plunged 
in the depths of reHgious gloom, while not 
a few bepame hardened and skeptical. 

How radically different all this was from 
the simple and effective method of evan- 
gelization taught and exemplified in the 
New Testament is now apparent to all. In 
the first place the message of the apostles 
and early preachers was not a defense of 
any speculative theological system, but a 
plain presentation of gospel facts going to 
show that Jesus of Nazareth was the prom- 
ised Messiah and the Son of the living God. 
They called upon men to believe on Christ, 
as the sole object of saving faith, and never 
far a moment intimated the inability of 
those to whom they preached to understand 
their testimony, believe on and obey Christ. 
They presented the claims of a divine Per- 
son on the faith and obedience of men, and 
made them feel that to reject these claims 

54 



PI^KA FOR NKW TESTAMENT EVANGELISM 

was to put themselves under condemnation. 
No theory of human depravity prevented 
these early preachers of the cross from lay- 
ing Ithe responsibility for remaining un- 
saved just where it belongs — at man's door. 
Though ignorant, doubtless, of our modern 
psychology, they were taught of the Spirit 
and understood that the way to reach the 
human heart and will, and so to produce 
repentance and faith, was to preach the gos- 
pel of Christ as containing both the wisdom 
of God and the power of God for the sal- 
vation of men. 

There is another important respect in 
which the preaching of the apostles and 
first Christians differed materially from the 
kind of preaching to which we have ad- 
verted. They not only had a definite mes- 
sage of good news cooicerning Christ to 
deliver to men, but when this message had 
awakened in the hearts of their hearers a 



55 



A MODERN PIvKA FOR ANCIENT TRUTHS 

desire to accept the salvation which Christ 
offers to men, they had a definite way which 
they pointed out by which those convicted 
of sin and desiring to appropriate the prom- 
ise of salvation, could do so at once. Faith 
in Christ was essential to the enjoyment of 
the salvation which he offered, but this faith 
was to find expression in an open confes- 
sion of Christ, not simply with the mouth, 
but in the ordinance of baptism. They 
made it plain that the faith which saves, is 
a faith which issues in repentance, and in a 
complete self-surrender to Christ, as both 
Savior and Lord. The faith they preached 
was personal rather than doctrinal, and it 
looked to discipleship to Christ rather than 
to the acceptance of any formulas of doc- 
trines. Under this sort of preaching there 
is no recorded instance of a soul's linger- 
ing in doubt and despair, who earnestly de- 
sired salvation. Thousands were known 

- 



PLEA FOR NKW TESTAMENT EVANGELISM 



to accept of the gospel under the preach- 
ing of a single sermon. Men crying out 
from conviction of sin, ''What must we do?" 
were told, ''Repent ye, and be baptized 
every one of you in the name of Jesus 
Christ unto the remission of your sins, and 
ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit/' 
But all this had become changed, as we 
have pointed out. A vigorous growth of 
traditions, theories and human speculations 
had obscured the once plain way of salva- 
tion. Hence the word of God was not hav- 
ing free course to run and be glorified in 
the world. It is not strange, therefore, that 
reformers at the beginning of the last cen- 
tury, inaugurating a movement for the 
restoration not only of the unity of the 
Church, but of New Testament teaching 
and practice, should plead for a return to 
New Testament evangelism. The success, 
unprecedented in modern times, which has 

57 



A MODKRN PLEA FOR ANCIKNT TRUTHS 

attended the preaching of those whOi have 
been seeking to return to the primitive gos- 
pel, is proof that commendable progress 
has been made in this direction. It would 
be too much to claim that we have fully 
attained to the New Testament standard 
of evangelism. We apprehend clearly 
enough that we must preach Christ and not 
our own opinions and philosophies, our 
criticisms and our theories^ in order to 
bring men to repentance and to faith. We 
understand that the same conditions which 
were laid down by the apostles, and which, 
when complied with, brought assurance of 
salvation, are yet in force, and will bring 
the same result to-day. But those first 
preachers of the cross were animated by a 
zeal which hesitated at no obstacles, a faith 
which amounted to knowledge in its cer- 
tainty, a love which triumphed over all ra- 
cial and national prejudices, a courage 

_ 



PIy:^A FOR N:^W TBSTAIVIBNT KVANGE^LISM 

which turned back before no peril, and a 
purity of life and an unselfishness of pur- 
pose which disarmed criticism and com- 
pelled the respect and admiration of all sin- 
cere and honest people. In these directions 
we have much room for growth. But hav- 
ing these basic principles, there is no reason 
why we should not develop a type of evan- 
gelists which would restore the power and 
prestige of the gospel, and win such trophies 
of the cross as accompanied the labor of the 
first evangelists. And this, God helping us, 
we will do. 

It may be well to remark before enter- 
ing further into this question that the ef- 
fort to restore New Testament evangelism 
is based on the fact that the apostles who 
were the first preachers of the gospel were 
guided by the Holy Spirit, in a measure 
and to a degree that will hardly be claimed 
by any preachers in modern times. Atjhe 

59 



A MODERN PLKA FOR ANCIE)NT TRUTHS 

beginning, too, of the n»ew! disp^sation 
these first preachers of the gospel would 
be certain to be simple, direct and fresh in 
their method of presenting the truth. The 
success, too, which attended their labor is 
sufficient proof that their method was the 
result of divine wisdorn. When this method 
was contrasted with that which prevailed at 
the beginning of this reformation, the con- 
viction was profound that among the things 
demanded in order to put the Church in a 
right attitude for aggressive and successful 
work was the restoration of the essential 
and unchanging features of evangelism 
illustrated in the New Testament. As to 
what some of these features are we come 
now to speak. 

Two things, as indicated in our previous 
article, were characteristic of New Testa- 
ment preaching, (i) It contained a mess- 
age concerning Jesus of Nazareth, of whose 
_ 



PLBA FOR NKW TESTAMENT BVANGBLISM 

life, miracles, teaching, crucifixiodi, resur- 
rection from the dead and ascension to the 
right hand of God, they were witnesses. 
His mission into the world, in harmony with 
Old Testament prophecy, was to save men 
from their sins, and the facts which they 
presented concerning him were ample evi- 
dence of his ability to save to the uttermost 
all that would come to God through him. 
(2) Supplementary to this message of facts 
concerning Jesus, who was the Christ, were 
certain requirements plain and definite to 
be complied with by men to enable them 
to be partakers of the salvation which 
Christ offers to all. We feel safe in saying 
that any evangelistic preaching of to-day 
that is deficient in either one of these fea- 
tures of New Testament evangelism will, 
to that extent, prove inadequate and inef- 
ficient. Any religious body whose statistics 
indicate from year to year a slow and slug- 



A MODERN PLEA FOR ANCIENT TRUTHS 

gish growth, or diminution in numbers, 
may well raise the question, ''What is 
wTong with our method of preaching to sin- 
mers?" It is evident that something must 
be wrong when, with such a gospel as we 
have to preach, such meager results follow 
the preaching. The leading religious bodies 
of Christendom would do well to raise this 
question and agitate it until a satisfactory 
solution is found. 

But leaving other religious bodies now 
to examine themselves, let us ask if we have 
attained to the New Testament ideal in the 
work of converting and saving men. None 
of us, we think, v/ould make such a claim. 
Perhaps the chief lack is in depth of faith 
and religious experience. Preaching is 
such a strange blending of truth and per- 
sonality that the higher type of char- 
acter which the preacher possesses, other 

things being equal, the greater will be the 
_ 



PLBA FOR NEW TESTAMENT EVANGELISM 



effect of the truth vvhich he presents. The 
careful reader of the New Testament can- 
not fail to be profoundly impressed with 
ihe depth of sincerity, the unaffected piety, 
the entire self-forgetfulness, the directness 
and earnestness, which characterized the 
earliest preachers of the cross. They pray- 
ed for, expected and received the guidance 
of the Holy Spirit in their work. They 
realized that it was not they but Christ 
working in them and through them that 
wrought the marvelous i^esults which as- 
tonished men. They were not fanatics; 
they used their reason and common sense, 
but they lived and labored in the presence 
of the unseen world, and its great verities 
were more real to them than the transitory 
things of this mortal life. We shall never 
fully restore apostolic evangelism until we 
restore men equally mighty in prayer, in the 
knowledge of the scriptures, in the power 

_ 



A MODKRN PlyBA FOR ANCIKNT TRUTHS 

of the Spirit, in the constraining love of 
Christ and in the absorbing passion for the 
souls of men. We cannot overlook the 
potency of sanctified personality in the 
work of restoring New Testament evan- 
gelism. 

There is constant danger of falHng into 
a sort of perfunctory style of preaching 
which is void of life and of the power that 
moves men to action. The story becomes 
old to us and the tragedy of the cross loses 
its pathos and power over our own hearts. 
And then we are prone to fall into routine 
methods and stick to them with a pertinac- 
ity that impresses many with the thought 
that these methods are of divine origin and 
of perpetual obligation. It is a living gos- 
pel we preach to living men, and Christ, in 
making us free by His truth, expects us to 
use our freedom in applying this unchang- 
ing gospel to the ever-changing and vary- 

_ 



PLEA FOR NEW TESTAMENT EVANGELISM 

ing conditions of humanity. We have fallen 
into a more stereotyped method of ques- 
tioning candidates who com.e forward to 
signify their desire to be Christians, than is 
warranted in the New Testament. The es- 
sential confession of Christ is presented to 
us in various forms, and we ought to exer- 
cise the same liberty to-day in adapting it 
to the needs of various classes — of children, 
of moral castaways who have been brought 
to repentance, and of religious people who 
come forward to render a more perfect 
obedience. The main thing is to be sure 
that the person making the confession is 
made to understand its import, and to com- 
mit himself to an unconditional surrender to 
Christ and to the duties and obligations of 
the Christian life. It can scarcely be 
doubted that the formal manner in which 
the single question is sometimes put and 
answered, has created the impression on the 

65 

(S) 



A MODERN PLEA FOR ANCIENT TRUTHS 

minds of many religious people that there 
is something superficial, a lack of spiritual 
depth, in our manner of bringing people 
into the church. 

Too much emphasis cannot be laid upon 
the importance of thoroughness in preach- 
ing. Men must be made to feel the awful- 
ness of sin, the terribleness of its conse- 
quences, and then the way of escape should 
be pointed out, not in a mechanical way, 
but with all tenderness and love. Every 
semblance of legalism should be avoided. 
No man entermg the church should be per- 
mitted to feel that on condition of his doing 
certain specified things, God is placed un- 
der obligations to save him, so that there 
is an equal division of honor between him- 
self and God, in the matter of his salva- 
tion. Every one should be made to feel 
that his salvation is a matter of grace, that 
what he is required to do, is not by way of 

66 



PIvBA FOR NKW TESTAMENT EVANGELISM 

meriting salvation, but by way of appro- 
priating the salvation which is offered free- 
ly, without money and without price. 

Perhaps one of the chief errors in our 
evangelistic efforts has been the dispropor- 
tionate emphasis we have laid upon the hu- 
man side of salvation, that is, upon the 
things which are required of men in order 
to remission of sins, as compared with the 
divine side, or what God has done for us 
and must do in order to salvation. This 
is already being corrected, h came about 
in a natural way, since the human side 
needed the special emphasis at the begin- 
ning of our work. But conditions have 
changed, and a redistribution of emphasis 
is required. This will add greatly to per- 
manency of results in evangelistic work. 

The great evangelists of the future, as of 
the past, must be men of profound religious 
convictions who know by actual personal 

6^ 



A MODERN PlvEA FOR ANCIENT TRUTHS 

experience the power of Christ to deUver 
from sin. He who knows this will not go 
far astray in presenting the claims of the 
gospel and in pointing out the way of sal- 
vation to sinners. Let us close by saying 
that there can be no restoration of New 
Testament evangelism, without the recogni- 
tion of our dependence upon God and His 
co-operation with us, of the value of prayer, 
and of the need of the Holy Spirit in the 
heart of the preacher. When these great 
facts are recognized we may expect, with 
our clear understanding of the message to 
be preached, which is Christ, and of the 
conditions of salvation through Him, that 
we shall raise up a mighty army of evan- 
gelists who will bring back to the Church 
the triumph and enthusiasm of the days 
of the apostles. 



68 



VI 
A PLEA FOR PROGRESS 



Wherefore leaving the doctrine of the first principles ot 
Christ, let us press on unto perfection. — Hebrew Letter-. 

Not that I have alread\^ obtained or am already made per- 
fect: but I press on, if so be that I may lay hold on that for 
which also I vras laid hold on by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I 
count not myself yet to have laid hold, but one thing I do, 
forgetting the things which are behind and stretching for- 
ward to the things which are before, I press on toward the 
goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ 
Jesus. — Paul. 

Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so 
on earth.— :/«?.yw^. 

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first 
heaven and the first earth are passed away; and the sea is 
no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming 
down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned 
for her husband.— :/oAn. 



70 



A PIvEA FOR PROGRESS 



VI 

A PLEA FOR PROGRESS 

When we consider that our religious 
movement had its origin in a new and 
broader conception of the kingdom of God, 
which made it impossible for our fathers 
to live contentedly under existing condi- 
tions, and that this conception of Chris- 
tianity was far in advance of the times in 
which they lived, and in conflict with the 
then prevaiHng theories and systems of the- 
ology, it seems strange that the idea of 
progress should ever have fallen into dis- 
repute among us. The explanation of this 
phenomenon, which at first seems so incon- 
sistent with the spirit in which this reforma- 
tion originated, is probably to be found in 
the fact that much emphasis was laid in 

71 



A MODERN PIvBA FOR ANCIKNT TRUTHS 

the beginning, necessarily, on the idea of 
a return to the Christianity of Christ, and 
of his apostles, or the restoration of the 
New Testament Church. It is easy to see 
how the feeling grew up in some minds 
that since we are seeking to return to orig- 
inal Christianity, this very fact precludes 
the possibility of progress. The idea of go- 
ing ''back to Jerusalem'' was so literalized 
with some as to make it seem inconsistent 
with going forward. It may be, too, that 
this feeling was enhanced by the abuse of 
the word progress as applied to certain wild 
and visionary schemes on the part of a few. 
We are inclined to think, however, that a 
misconception of what is implied in restor- 
ing the New Testament Church, and an 
over-emphasis of that feature of our work, 
is responsible for the hostility that is mani- 
fested on the part of some to the idea of 
progress. But whatever may be the source 

7^ 



A PIvKA FOR PROGRESS 



of this strange opposition, of one thing 
we are sure, and that is, without progress, 
continuous progress, in our religious 
thought and practice, in our spiritual 
growth and practical work, we shall never 
accomplish our mission in the world. 

It is now becoming apparent, except to 
the most superficial thinkers, that there is 
no conflict whatever between 0|Ur aim to 
restore what ought to be restored of the 
New Testament Church — ^namely, its un- 
changing facts and principles and its divine 
ideals — and true progress, which is the 
practical embodiment or realization of such 
principles and ideals. No religious body 
on earth, either in apostolic days or at the 
present time, has ever realized fully the 
ideals of Christ and His apostles as to the 
Church. It is far ahead of us yet. Towards 
its realization we are all struggling. We 
go back to the recorded utterances of the 



73 



A MODKRN PIvKA FOR ANCIKNT TRUTHS 



historic Christ and his apostles for our 
ideals of the Church and of Christian living ; 
but we go forward under the leadership of 
the living Christ to the realization of these 
divine ideals. 

The basis of that progress which is es- 
sential to the realization of what Christ and 
his apostles have taught concerning the 
Church and Christianity, is furnished 
us in the restoration of the New 
Testament creed, which is ''Christ and 
him crucified'' and the opportunity for 
such progress we find in that liberty 
wherewith Christ has made us free. 
With Jesus Christ as an unchangeable basis 
and with the liberty which He gives to us 
as the door of opportunity, we have room 
and motive for infinite progress. The 
guarantee that such progress will be Chris- 
tian in its character, ultimately, whatever 
temporary departures may be made from 

74 



A PIvBA FOR PROGRESS 



the truth, is found in the promise of the 
risen Christ: "Lo, I am yith you alway, 
even unto the end of the world/' The fact 
that Christ is with His Church is assurance 
that it will make progress and make it along 
right lines. Akin to this promise, if it be 
not substantially the same, are the words 
of Jesus to His disciples, "I have yet many 
things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear 
them now. Howbeit, when he, the Spirit 
of truth, is come, he shall guide you into 
all the truth'' — a promise which cannot be 
limited to the apostles, but which may be 
rightly claimed by the Church. 

Truth is infinite. Each generation makes 
new advances, pushing back the borders of 
the unknown and revealing new and hither- 
to undiscovered truths. This is true both in 
the physical realm and in the spiritual. We 
have not yet sounded the depths of the rev- 
elations which God has already made to us. 



75 



A MODERN PIvKA FOR ANCIENT TRUTHS 

There are heights and depths and lengths 
and breadths in the inspired writings which 
have come down to us, which none have 
yet fully explored. Spiritual truths are 
spiritually discerned, and as we become 
more spiritual we have a clearer discern- 
ment of truth. Many a passage lies dor- 
mant in our minds until we reach the point 
in our religious experience at which we are 
able to discern its meaning, and then it be- 
comes living and powerful to us. No doubt 
God has other great messages which He 
will make known to us as soon as we are 
able to receive them. He has not exhaust- 
ed Himself in the revelations which He has 
made in the past, either through nature, 
through history, or through "holy men of 
old who, spake as they were moved by the 
Holy Spirit.'* But we are yet only children 
in knowledge, and are not able to compre- 
hend what He is saying to us through many 

_ _ 



A PLEA FOR PROGRESS 



voices and in many ways. What infinite 
presumption it would be for any man to 
suppose that he has learned all the truth 
that is worth knowing, and that there is no 
further progress in knowledge possible to 
him! The wisest men of the world have 
most realized their ignorance, and the mea- 
gerness of their knowledge, as compared 
with the infinite reaches of the unknown. 

But if truth be infinite, no less so is the 
ideal of Christian character. There lives 
not in the world to-day, nor has there ever 
lived a man, except the sinless One of Gali- 
lee, who perfectly exemplifies the Christian 
character. As in knowledge, so in virtue, 
the best men have most keenly felt their 
imperfections. When we compare ourselves 
with the matchless Man of Nazareth, how 
far we fall below the divine standard ! What 
infinite progress we must make before we 
have apprehended that fo^ which we have 



n 



A mod:^rn pi,:^a for anciknt truths 

been apprehended by Christ! How slowly 
we grow out of the animal into the spiritual 
and come into the freedom of the sons of 
God ! The family, the state, and especially 
the Church, are divine agencies to promote 
our progress in righteousness and in nobil- 
ity of character. Who is there so blind as 
to see no need of any progress on his part 
in order to reach the true goal of life ? 

When we come to consider the work 
which Gad has committed to his Church in 
the world, how much remains to be done ! 
A large part of the human race are yet in 
the darkness of paganism. Ignorance, su~ 
perstition, idolatry, disease, wretchedness, 
abject poverty, despair and sin in all its va- 
rious forms, are doing their deadly work 
among these untaught millions. Even 
Christendom is divided, glorying in its 
party names, its party shibboleths and its 
party zeal, wasting its resources in hurtful 



A PIvBA FOR PROGRESS 



competitions and unfraternal strifes, instead 
of presenting a united front against the 
wickedness of the world. Moral and social 
reforms languish for lack of support, while 
municipal corruption runs d0;Wn the streets 
of our cities, desolating homes, blighting in- 
dividual lives and breeding disease and 
crime and death. Surely there is progress 
needed in the accomplishment of the work 
which God has committed^ to his people. 

God save us from the folly oi so falling 
in love with our opinions and theologies as 
to embalm them in creeds, and so making 
of them barriers to Christian progress! 

God keep us from falling in love with the 
past so much that we turn our backs upon 
the glowing future with its mighty needs 
and possibilities, while we fill our hands and 
arms with the traditions and theologies of 
the generations that sleep in the dust ! 

God fill us with holy discontent and di- 



79 



A MODERN PLEA FOR ANCIENT TRUTHS 

vine dissatisfaction with our past attain- 
ments and achievements, and spur us on- 
ward and upward to higher and better 
things ! 

God open our eyes to see the vision of 
the Hving Christ, and o.ur ears to hear His 
voice, as He calls us to follow Him in 
bringing all the kingdoms of this world in 
subjection to His reign ! 

God keep us a living, growing, free, 
progressive and continuous reformatory 
movement, until the purposes for which we 
were raised up shall have been accom- 
plished in the world ! 

God keep us humble, teachable, obedient 
that we may receive the new truth for the 
new times, and never cease our active ef- 
forts for the world's betterment until His 
will be done on_ earth as it is done in 
heaven ! 

So shall we be loyal to the spirit and aim 
of our reformatory movement. 

80 



VII 
A PLEA FOR LOVE 



(6) 



Thou Shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and 
with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the great 
and first commandment. And a second like unto it is this: 
Thou Shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two 
commandments the whole law hangeth, and the prophets. 
—Jesus, 

I^ove worketh no ill to his neighbor; love, therefore, is the 
fulfillment of the law.— Paw/. 

But now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; and the 
greatest of these is love.— Pom/. 

God is love. Herein was the love of God manifested in us, 
that God hath sent his only begotten Son into the world 
that we might live through him. . . Beloved, if God so 
loved us, we also ought to love one another.— y<c?Aw. 



82 



A PLEA FOR LOVE 



VII 

A PLEA FOR LOVE 

Of the things which abide through all 
the changes of time, of circumstance and of 
human thought, the greatest is love. The 
apostle who championed the principle of 
justification by faith taught that the su- 
preme thing in Christianity is love. An- 
other apostle who has given sublime em- 
phasis in his writings to hope, puts love 
at the summit of the Christian graces. Still 
another apostle, whose eagle flights enabled 
him to reach the loftiest heights of revela- 
tion, said, *'God is love/' And One who is 
greater than Paul and Peter and John, 
taught that all the law and all the prophets 
hang on one word, love — ^love, Godward 
and manw^ard. 



83 



A MODERN PLEA FOR ANCIENT TRUTHS 



If love, then, be the supreme element of 
Christianity, and the end of all God's reve- 
lations, it follows that any religious move- 
ment seeking to do God's work in God's 
way, must have love as its dominant note 
and controlling principle. If our movement 
be truly Christian in spirit and aim, it must 
give the same emphasis to love, as the es- 
sential thing, which the New Testament 
gives to it. This consideration is height- 
ened by the fact that ours is a Christian 
union movement, pre-eminently, and as 
such must manifest this cohesive power of 
love within itself, and that attractive power 
which love always exerts on others, for the 
healing of divisions among Christians and 
the unification of the body of Christ. No 
matter how sound we may be in doctrine, 
nor how correct in our understanding of 
what New Testament Christianity is, we 
shall utterly fail to accomplish the work for 

~ 8^^ ■ 



A PLEA FOR IvOVB 



which we believe we have been raised up 
without giving to love the supreme place 
which it held in the apostolic church, and 
especially in apostolic teaching. 

If it be a fact, as we fear it is, that in our 
zeal for truth, for correct doctrine, for the 
restoration of the ordinances to their orig- 
inal form and significance, and in our war- 
fare against the errors which prevail among 
religious people, we have sometimes for- 
gotten the supremacy of love and subordi- 
nated it to intellectual clearness and correct 
theories, we have, to that extent, marred 
the beauty and hindered the progress of 
the work to which we are committed. We 
have now reached an age in our history, 
as a religious body, and a stage in our re- 
ligious development, where It is possible 
and exceedingly desirable that we should 
correct any error of this kind and allow the 
principle of love to have its rightful sway 



85 



A MODERN PIvKA FOR ANCIENT TRUTHS 

among us. It is easy to see, looking back 
over our history, how many of the ques- 
tions which have agitated us, and which 
have caused more or less friction, might 
have been settled much more satisfactorily 
and much more speedily, if we had exer- 
cised more love in our interchange of 
thought and in our bearing toward each 
other. Love is a great solvent of difficulties, 
a great lubricant with which to oil our ec- 
clesiastical machinery to make it run 
smoothly, and a great unifier of those hold- 
ing diverse opinions and using diverse 
methods. Whenever it has been allowed 
the opportunity to do so, it has manifested 
its supreme excellence in allaying strifes, 
healing alienations among brethren, bridg- 
ing chasms and in promoting the peace and 
harmony of the Church. 

What would be some of the obvious re- 
sults if we should give love the supreme 

' 86 ~ 



A PLEA FOR LOVE 



place which it holds in the teaching of 
Christ and His apostles? 

I. It would guarantee freedom of 
thought and utterance to all, because love 
"doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh 
not its own, is not provoked, taketh not 
account of evil; rejoiceth not in unright- 
eousness, but rejoiceth with the truth; 
beareth all things, believeth all things, 
hopeth all things, endureth all things/' 
Given this atmosphere in which to think 
and work, every one would feel at liberty 
to think freeiy and to utter himself to his 
brethren without fear of suspicion or of 
unkind treatment, even if his opinion dif- 
fered from that of his brother. There 
would be a friendly comparison of views 
on all questions of difference, and a prog- 
ress in thought and especially in effective- 
ness of religious work, which we have never 
yet seen. In dealing with opinions deemed 

_ 



A MODERN PLBA FOR ANCIENT TRUTHS 

to be erroneous, brotherly love, kindly con- 
sideration and tender persuasion would 
take the place of denunciation, sarcasm and 
misrepresentation. What a vast difference 
that would make in our newspaper discus- 
sions! How easy it would be to adopt 
helpful expedients for making our work 
more efficient and caring for 0(Ur poor and 
needy churches, when evil suspicions have 
given place to mutual confidence and fra- 
ternal solicitude for each other's welfare. 

2. It would not only make the conserva- 
tive brother careful about impugning the 
motives and questioning the essential 
soundness qf his progressive brother's 
faith, but it would make the progressive 
brother equally careful not to give utter- 
ance, in a dogmatic spirit, to hasty conclu- 
sions which are at variance with the views 
of a majority of his brethren. He would 
also be careful not to denounce his brother 

LLofC. 88 ' 



A PIvEA FOR IvOVK 



who cannot go as fast as he, but who must 
reach his conclusions more dehberately. 
This would impart a new tone to our re- 
ligious discussions and avoid those personal 
controversies which prevent the even and 
orderly progress of the Church to a higher 
and better life. 

3. It would revive the spirituality of the 
Church, removing, as it would, all discord 
among brethren, and bringing about 
that state of things which existed in the 
primitive church, when the world said of 
the disciples of Jesus, ''Behold, how they 
love one another!" It would be getting 
down to the essence of Christianity which 
would bring all nearer to God and into the 
true spirit of reverence and worship. Noth- 
ing so, hinders communion and fellowship 
with God as the lack of fellowship among 
Christians. 

4. It would give a new stimulus to evan- 



89 



A MODERN PJwKA FOR ANCIENT TRUTHS 

gelism. When the world sees the churches 
united, the members loving one another 
and having regard for each other's welfare, 
each one looking not upon his own things 
but also upon the things of others, reach- 
ing out unselfish hands to help the needy 
and to save the outcasts of society, it will 
have a greater moral effect on the world 
than all the creedal deliverances which the 
Church has made from the fourth century 
to the present. Let love become the dom- 
inant principle of the Church, and each 
congregation will become a magnet in the 
community in which it exists, drawing 
about it and into its fellowship an ever- 
widening circle of friends for the Master. 
Love and unity are drawing forces, while 
envy and strife are repelling forces. 

5. It will give a new impetus to our mis- 
sionary efforts. Love is the constraining 
power that lies behind all true missionary 

90 



A PIvKA FOR lyOVK 



effort. We shall never ''go into all the 
world'^ until our love reaches out into all 
the world after lost men and women every- 
where. If we loved more we should give 
more, and more of us would go with the 
message ourselves to dying men and 
women. Not until the same love which 
constrained Christ to come as a missionary 
to the world, and to endure the humiliation 
of crucifixion for us, becomes the dominant 
force in our Church life will the Church 
rise to the measure of its responsibility in 
the work of world-wide evangelization. It 
is the lack of love — love for Christ and for 
our fellowmen — that *'cuts the nerve of 
missions.^' 

6. It would quicken our zeal in behalf of 
every moral and social reform which looks 
to the elevation of our race. It would re- 
move hurtful competitions in the realm of 
industry, establish fraternal relations be- 



91 



A MODERN PLEA FOR ANCIENT TRUTHS 

tween labor and capital, and unite the 
Church in a holy crusade against the liquor 
traffic, the social evil, municipal corruption, 
unlawful monopolies which prey upon the 
pubHc, and whatever other evil debauches 
and oppresses mankind. He who loves his 
fellowmen as Christ loved them, will hate, 
with a holy hatred, and oppose with all his 
energy, everything which tends to destroy 
the home, corrupt the state, weaken the 
Church or injure men, 

7. Finally, love, if allowed free course to 
run and be glorified, would unite the di- 
vided hosts of God, hush its discordant 
notes of strife, close up and solidify its scat- 
tered ranks, and send it forward on a tri- 
umphant campaign under the leadership of 
the great Captain of our salvation, to res- 
cue this world from the dominion of Satan 
and make the earth the abode of righteous- 
ness and of truth. A dividea Church can 



92 



A PI^BA FOR IvOVE 



never be argued or forced into unity. Love 
alone can accomplish it, for love will put 
us all under the leadership of Christ, and 
He will lead us to the acknowledgment of 
all truth, to the obedience of all commands, 
to tolerate each other's differences and to 
keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of 
peace. If Christian unity, therefore, be the 
great need of the world, love is the great 
need of the Church in order to the realiza- 
tion of that unity. 

We beseech you, therefore, brethren, by 
the mercies of God, and by the love of 
Christ, that, inasmuch as we have been hon- 
ored of the great Head of the Church in 
having been raised up to plead this holy 
cause of unity, we strive more and more to 
restore the supremacy of love, the uniting 
and cementing bond of unity, that we may 
accomplish the work whereunto we have 
been called and prove worthy disciples of 



93 



A MODERN PLEA FOR ANCIENT TRUTHS 

Him ''who loved us and gave Himself 
for us." 



94 



JAN 28 1903 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



11 



II 



029 819 202 



